Take a Chance on Me
by talking-eye
Summary: The budding relationship of Burke and Cristina from their POV in Season 1. I had a lot of fun writing it. Seriously. Didn't check my spelling though... Please review.
1. Chapter 1

Take a Chance in Me

The emotional upheaval I experience after watching the Nurse Fallon and Coffee episodes is so profound that I can't bring myself away from writing about it, even though other great fan-fic writers have already done so.

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_i"Are you sure she's what you want, Preston?"/i_

The remnants of Liz Fallon's words filled the room as Burke riffled through the gifts and cards she left behind.

Everyone agreed that the late scrub nurse was wise and saw beyond the needs of others, but Burke wondered if his certainty about his feelings was in part forged by the directness in Liz's question.

_i"You know you have changed, Preston. I never saw you look so steadily and deeply into any woman since the day you started your fellowship here 5 years ago, not to mention an intern. You know that's forbidden."/i_

Burke nodded awkwardly and twisted his earlobe.

"_That girl looks like a rebel. You don't even know if she likes men or not."_

True, he knew nothing about her, except that she was wild as a horse, ready to break every rule to get ahead.

_i"She seems to be just like you. Competitive, smart, ready to kill for the best case. You know she came here at 4:30 this morning to get this case?"/i_

Of course he did, because he had been following her like a gentle stalker, since the first day when he gave the surgery to O'Malley instead of her. Yet, it was hard to know more about Cristina Yang. She was too private a person to explore. Besides, he was Preston Burke. He didn't want to be like Sheppard, making his pursuit of an intern so blatantly obvious.

_i"You'd rather be here, you know it. Why, you got anything that's waiting at home? Boyfriend?"_

"_Nope."_

"_A girlfriend?"_

"_Nope."_

"_A pet? Family?_

_Hands loosely crossed across his chest, Burke was grinning from the entrance._

"_A bed." /i_

Burke's face glowed when he recalled how Liz tried to grill the intern on his behalf. He remembered how he couldn't conceal his excitement as he caught the tail-end of the conversation. Lucky for him, the self-possessed expression on Cristina's face didn't seem to suggest she knew what was on his mind.

_i"I don't feel sorry for you…This is our life."/i_

But when Nurse Fallon said that, Burke was silent. He almost felt sorry for his curly hair intern, perhaps himself as well.

The male nurse knocked and brought Burke's reflection to a halt. "Dr. Burke, need any help with the gifts?"

"No thanks, I'll be done in a minute." Burke carefully placed every item into a huge box, showing his last respect for Ellis Grey's scrub nurse.

He knew there was an even better way to thank the late nurse, however. Liz helped open the door. It was now up to him to jump at the chance. With tact.

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	2. Chapter 2

I re-watched the episode and edited the details a bit to match the episode.

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Ch. 2

_i"Why, you got anything that's waiting at home? Boyfriend?"_

"_Nope."_

"_A girlfriend?"_

"_Nope."_

"_A pet? Family?_

_Hands loosely crossed across his chest, Burke was grinning from the entrance._

"_A bed."_

"_We've got plenty of beds here." /i_

Cristina recalled how embarrassed she was when her attending walked in with a puzzled grin to her ridiculous response. _Poor bedside manner._ She knew it.

But that was yesterday. How things have changed this afternoon. Liz Fallon's eyes were shut, but her mouth was twitching. Cristina knew her patient was in a lot of pain. She knew she was going to die. Cristina was mad at Burke and everyone at the hospital. _Why am I the only one who wants to do something?_

_i"And you sound like the only reason she's in this hospital is because she's here to die."/i_

The scene outside the on-call room kept replaying in her head. Cristina still couldn't believe Burke actually raised his brows and nodded subtly instead of dispelling the idea that disgusted her.

_iPeople must be thinking all I want is the whoppler and I probably did, but it's more than that. It's not only about me, it's about medicine, my belief in medicine/i _Cristina held the scrub nurse's hand firmly as the groan grew louder.

"They were never gonna operate on me."

"You could have told me that."

"I'm fine with it. Think of it as a hazing ritual."

"Please don't talk, don't talk." Liz Fallon looked up with half-closed eyes. Cristina touched Liz's shoulder lightly, trying to preserve the rare moments of silence.

Then the line went flat. "Liz? Liz? Liz, stay with me…" Before she knew what she was doing, Cristina was engulfed by a pool of bystanders who kept repeating those three words—Do Not Resuscitate.

Of all the voices in the room, there was one that finally silenced her and put her into a state of near trance. "Let her go. Let her go." Liz Fallon had died. And here Cristina was tightly gripped by the man who did nothing to save the nurse's life.

_i"Let her go down."/i_ Burke said firmly. His gaze was burning like the California sunshine she used to loathe as a child but secretly missed since she started her internship in rainy Seattle. Cristina tried to fight back, verbally and physically. They fight was charged with so much power that at one point Burke was pointing his finger at her nose to stop her. Before she could decipher the meaning behind, the Chief made her call the time of death.

_iWell Liz, I was actually going to give you to Meredith Grey."/i_

Cristina could not shake off that humiliating remark of Webber as she fled the scene and ran for the stairs. She wished she had a chance to prove to Liz Fallon that someone by the last name of Yang was as competent as a Grey. She wanted someone to tell her she was right. She needed someone.

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	3. Chapter 3

Ch. 3

It didn't take him long to find his intern. Cristina was hiding in the stairs room, gasping for air. What Burke really wanted was to hold her and tell her that things would be fine, but his better judgment told him there's a fine line to walk on as her attending.

He paused for a moment, fixing his eyes on the bruises inflicted by Liz Fallon's death through the glass of the door.

Burke pushed through the wooden door, which gave out a banging sound. She was about to leave when she knew who entered, but he couldn't let her go. He could let go of Liz Fallon, but not Cristina Yang, the woman who was beginning to make him light-headed.

"I—" Anger and frustration filled her face as she tried to say something.

He was afraid to touch her with words, so he grabbed both of her hands in his and tried to rock her.

"Let her go. We have to let her go." His face was calm, almost void of emotion, yet it was disturbingly consoling.

The teary eyes of hers pained him. He was sure it was love he was feeling for her, not just pity. She glanced down, then up, and down again. He wouldn't mind if she fell in his arms, but he knew her momentary lapse of vulnerability would soon be ovewritten by her forceful display of resistance.

Burke's hands didn't leave Cristina's for one single moment. There she was, looking like an injured puppy that was in need of a hug, something he was ready to give, but refrained from.

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Soon it was another day, a busy day. Burke knew he ought to be hurry or he'd be late for his surgery. Instead he paused as he sipped his Cappuccino two feet from the nurse station.

Burke could have walked off without looking back. He was a man of pride and he wasn't ready for rejection. Yet, curiosity made him motion backwards to see if Cristina picked up the mocha latte he ordered specifically for her. The coffee guy said that's what the curly hair doctor ordered last night. Burke hoped he's right. It was too girly a drink for Cristina Yang, he thought to himself.

Why was he handing her coffee he wasn't sure. There must have been a better way to transmit his feelings, but he wanted to be discreet.

_She picked it up. Maybe it'll work out. Maybe._

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	4. Chapter 4

Ch.4

Cristina was ruminating on her encounter with Burke at the nurse station that morning, how a cup of coffee emerged on her right half a second before Burke appeared on her left.

She glanced up from her discharge folder with a stubborn look. And what did Burke do? Nothing, only rocking his own coffee in the air slightly, staring at her, his lips moving, but no words came out.

She could smell it. It was Cappuccino. His head jerked a little.Her eyes swam left and right, absorbing the gist of it.

_i " …Just coffee."_

"_Good."_

"_Good." /i_

Then Burke nodded approvingly and quickly walked off.

_What was he thinking? Giving me coffee? Why am I smiling?_

Cristina was done with her paperwork, and almost left without the coffee. But she turned her head and examined the red cup like a piece of artwork before picking it up swiftly. She decided to give it a chance.

It wasn't Cappuccino. Hers was a Mocha Latte. Not her regular favorite, but her comfort drink when life seemed to be in need of some sugary sweetness.

_How did he know that?_

Yesterday, she thought they were going to get into a physical fight. In the end, he just stood there. He was there for her. Her attending, standing still, like a rock. Now he's bringing her coffee. Was there any ulterior motive?

_Don't be silly. It's just coffee. _

Cristina was wracking her brain thinking about when it all began.

_i "Well, anyway, Sheppard had her on the case on the guy with nails in his head…Dr. Yang with be with you."/i_

She remembered how Burke was unusually gentle with her in Liz Fallon's case. He didn't yell at her when she kept asking about the nails in another guy's head. He didn't grimace, didn't sneer. Burke only spoke plainly to her about what to do. He was so composed that even Webber thought Burke was not being adequately harsh to his intern.

_It's a crazy world. An intern smart as myself is climbing up and down looking for the culprit who left a towel in a patient's lung while the intern who slept with an attending got to hold a heart. And now I'm getting coffee from another attending._

Then she got it.

_i Patient: Stephanie Drake_

_Date:10-18-2000_

_Surgeon: John Davies, M.D._

_Surgical Fellow: Preston Burke, M.D._

…_/i_

_iSo, Burke was trying to bribe her with his coffee/i_


	5. Chapter 5

Ch.5

"And you went on like that to confess to the husband? You don't know what it'd cost. You have no idea."

Burke was a focused man. Normally he would not be distracted in his surgery. Today was different. The sweetness in the morning made him yearn for more of that, soon. That's why he was annoyed by the fact that Mrs. Patterson needed another follow-up surgery.

Already he was making plans in his head about how and when to proceed, yet one small mistake Meredith Grey made took away the luxury to reminisce the satiating coffee scene with Cristina.

His intern had done something that was beyond the word _absurd_ could capture and now he was trying to fix it. Burke was keeping his fingers crossed that Mrs. Patterson survived as the Chief walked in.

"I just had a conversation with Mr. Patterson. I want one copy of his wife's chart in my office by 5pm. Tomorrow morning the two of you are gonna meet with me…Leaving towel in patient's lungs and now this…"

Burke thought he heard Webber mention something about a towel in someone's lungs. While he wasn't sure what it was all about, that sent an instant chill down his spine.

"Go back to the husband. Explain to him what happened. Apologize. Profusely." Sending Meredith away was easy, shaking off the inexplicable dread he was feeling was a lot more difficult. _Mrs. Patterson will live. My patients live because I am a great surgeon. _Burke tried to reassure himself.

Cristina was at the nurse counter when Burke came out of surgery. Standing side by side, he was counting to 10 to calm his nerves before taking the initiative to speak. _Take it slow and easy. _He cautioned himself.

"Dr. Burke." Cristina called out his name almost without looking up. "The by-pass graft got a little complicated."

Burke could sense the hostility back in Cristina's voice and he wondered why. "There's nothing I couldn't handle."

"Good." She turned, without smiling.

_Why that look of despise on her face. _Burke watched as she walked away. He didn't know what Cristina had found out, nor did he notice how she was monitoring his every step, how she wanted not to be disappointed, how she valued integrity as much as talent.

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	6. Chapter 6

Ch. 6

_So, what happens now?"_

_"Now, you keep this to yourself… Do this for me."_

It's been an hour since her meeting with Bailey, but Cristina still had a hard time figuring out why Bailey was saying that when she handed the patient's record over. Bailey was the Nazi. She was supposed to be report on every little thing that happened to those in power. _Why was she covering up for Burke? Was Bailey coerced into doing that_

Cristina tried to focus on the bulky reference book she randomly picked from the library. Honestly, there wasn't anything she hadn't already known. She just needed something to keep her mind busy.

"You gotta meet tomorrow morning with the Chief?"

"I could have got kicked out of the program."

Cristina rested her head on one of her hands, zoning out once again as she flipped through the book. It was impossible not to pay attention to Meredith's conversation with George.

"I could, right?"

"Patterson's just gonna sue." Cristina tried to pretend that she didn't care.

"Patterson's not gonna sue." George insisted.

"Why're you thinking? Telling Burke? That's stupid."_You should have learned from him, hiding your mistake. _

Cristina was sullen, thinking about how wrong it was to hide the truth. _Would she have done the same? Would she have spoken up and jeopardize her career?_ Those were bigger questions she couldn't answer.

When she saw Burke coming out of the surgery, she felt very uncomfortable standing beside him at the counter. She wanted to ask him about Mrs. Drake's towel directly, but instead she asked about Mrs. Patterson's surgery. When he responded with his typical arrogance about how there was nothing he couldn't handle, Cristina shook her head with mild aversion. There was something else she wanted to say, but she decided she was in no position to do so.

Bailey and Burke were talking. Cristina tried not to care, but her eyes failed her. She saw Burke drop a piece of the document and buried his head with his hands. Bailey mumbled something about taking it to the Chief, but after pinching his own nose, Burke demanded to get the folder, which Bailey reluctantly released.

Cristina was very disappointed. She came here to be like Burke, a top surgeon, a slightly cocky, but honorable man, who cared to show his concern to the intern after her patient died. Now, the whole thing seemed like a scam. She was feeling sorry for Meredith, for being honest with dishonest people.

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	7. Chapter 7

Ch. 7

Burke anxiously went through Mrs. Drake's folder once more. He was staring at that piece of paper so hard that one would have thought an answer would jump out from it.

_Cristina knew it. That's why she was giving me that look._

Burke regretted showing a complete lack of compassion to Meredith earlier. She was honest, he was not.

Deep at heart, he knew what he had to do with the information, but he did not know how to deal with Cristina. Had he just blown his chance?

Preston Burke was never as conscious about the potential consequence of his action as he was at this point in life. As an attending and someone destined to be Chief of Surgery some day, he always got to do whatever he liked. In the realm of love, however, he was facing a completely different ranking system.

That night, he could barely sleep. Strange, he thought, how a woman's reaction to his past deed meant so much to him. The only other woman who had exerted such an influence on him would probably be his mother.

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While Burke genuinely enjoyed the company of his lawyer friends from college—he himself being an eloquent guy who craved intellectually stimulating conversations that could keep him sharp—he never liked the in-house lawyer.

"I've spoken to the husband. I believe as long as his wife remains stable, he's not gonna sue."

"I can't take your beliefs to court, Dr. Burke."

Burke was appalled that the lawyer wasn't taking his words seriously. He wasn't only trying to defend Meredith, but also to stand up for what was right. Cristina was never going to witness this, but he had to prove at least to himself that he was not burying his own conscience.

"Dr. Grey made a huge error."

"And she reported it."

"Too late. And in front of the patient's husband."

"But she reported it. She spoke up."

Burke stopped, biting his lower lip, clasping his hand, before speaking again. He was not hesitating, but scared. He was not sure if it was too late for him to confess, if he was saying it in front of the right people.

He had been making a lot of decisions in the past few days, taking very big steps. From letting Nurse Fallon help him to giving Cristina coffee, things seemed to be working well so far. All he needed was another leap of faith, that extra step that the Chief said he was lacking only two weeks ago.

"…Why didn't I report that? Maybe I was scared, fearing it would end my career… even great doctors make mistakes, and when we do, we gotta have the chance to speak up without fear of retribution." He glared at the glass surface of Webber's desk. "Or everyone suffers."

He couldn't express how refreshing it felt to finally say it out loud. The Chief let out a subtle smile and made a mental note of his attending's courage. It was never too late.

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	8. Chapter 8

Ch. 8

"What do you think?"

"50 says Meredith gets tossed out on her ass and Burke walks away without helping."

The more malice Cristina infused into her tone, the less she wanted her words to come true. Behind the sarcasm, Cristina was worrying about Meredith and one other individual. Indeed, she cared more about the action of the other individual than her best friend's future.

When Meredith walked out of the room looking happy, everyone let loose the tension on his or her shoulders, all except Cristina. She had to know whether Burke acted like a man worthy of her respect or nothing more than a jerk. i_Why should I even care/i _Cristina did not have enough time to process that question before Meredith told them Burke helped her.

George thought he caught a glimpse of flickering lights of hope in Cristina's eyes, but he did not know what to make of it. He did not realize how Cristina wished she could drill Meredith for the details of the proceeding. _Did he tell the Chief about the towel as well or did he not? Why couldn't Meredith say more?_

It was Bailey who rescuedl Cristina from the midst of uncertainties. "He was always going to tell him about the towel. Just wanted to wait for the right time. Information is power."

To that, Cristina was satisfied. Looking at the back of Burke from the catwalk, Cristina also realized something else. She exchanges looks with Burke on the catwalk without saying a word, then turned and glided away.

_Why didn't you say something?_ Cristina didn't want to be rude, so she turned back and looked at Burke, trying to tell the man through her eyes something that words could not fully capture. Then she turned again, flew over the mop like a dancer late for her first show, and ran away feeling giddy. There was so much she wanted to thank him for, not just coffee, but also the fact that he didn't disappoint.

Burke was looking at her. He hoped she understood. Although he disappeared into thick layers of people without uttering a word on the catwalk, the way how she looked back warmed his heart. He felt like he had done the right thing and his effort was appreciated.

He didn't know if he should be on the offense or defense now, but either way he knew he would likely score.

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	9. Chapter 9

Ch. 9

It had been a long day.

On one side of the on-called room door, Burke was slowly removing his sweat-soaked scrubs after kicking off his shoes under the bunk bed. On the other side of that same door, Cristina was overcome by an odd feeling of incompleteness. She wanted to become whole again. There she was, ready to open the door to a whole new world.

Furrowing his eyebrows as he always did, Burke thought about how bold he was this morning. That didn't stop the click of the doorknob from startling him.

Instinct told him it was something he was waiting for, but he turned to make sure.

There she was, her hand resting on the doorknob, her face clouded with some ambiguity.

He stared at her, without saying a word, without any smile, without any greetings. _She's here. I'm not Sheppard. She's not Meredith. Should I, or should I not?_

Cristina knew a decision had to be made within that split second. Someone had to take a chance before the magic was gone. As much as she wanted him to make the first move, her fingers couldn't wait any longer. Her wrist turned once, her thumb and index finger met, then her wrist turned once more. Time stopped, and the room became theirs.

_So, she got it. _Burke hanged his hands on the upper bunk, his head lowered to face the floor. He was running a last minute check in his head to make sure it was right. He hoped he was right.

_He isn't asking me to get out like last time when we're in the men's room._The lack of resistance was a sign of acceptance in Cristina's eyes, but a little test of the water wouldn't do any harm.

"Thanks for the coffee." She was looking like a serious looking 5-year-old trying to thank her teacher for taking her to the zoo.

Burke loved the discreetness in Cristina's tone. It was too late for either of them to stop the wheel of love from moving forward. Once the door was opened, the line had to be crossed.

Slowly raising his head, Burke walked closer to the woman he desired, his hand sprang up to play with the curls above her forehead. He had wanted to do that since the day Nurse Fallon died. They were surprisingly soft.

He placed another hand on her, before they were in the perfect position for a passionate kiss that moved the world but stopped the heart. Burke was savoring the spontaneity of hers, the swiftness of her hands that fell perfectly on his neck and face. Shortly after, his delicate surgeon fingers lost control as the loops around her scrubs went loose. The room was becoming too steamy for any voyeur to see through.

Together, Burke and Cristina took a chance in something previously unknown to them—_love_.


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